IPL 3 Semi Finals: Mumbai Indians' Young Guns Overpower RCB To Enter IPL 3 Finals

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Sreelata YellamrazuApr 21 2010

Sachin Tendulkar was merely the shadow. The impetus was really by the young guns and a certain player by the name of Kieron Pollard.

kieron pollard

Pollard justified his huge pay check by coming good at precisely the right moment for the Mumbai Indians facing off against the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the first IPL 3 semi final at the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai.

With an all round performance, Pollard managed to seal the RCB's fate. But there were two other Mumbai Indians who played their part with the bat. On a day when the MI team got off to a good start but were losing wickets to threaten sustaining the moment, Ambati Rayudu and Saurabh Tiwary stood up to be counted and led the way for MI to go from posting a competitive total to a formidable one.

Chasing 185 was certainly not what the visitors were hoping for reducing the hosts to four down for seventy-seven at the half way stage with Tendulkar and Duminy back in the pavilion.

But the match changed course once Tiwary, for yet another time this IPL, decided to kick in and go on. Aiding him in the pursuit firstly was Ambati Rayudu whose fighting innings of forty was brilliantly complimented by Tiwary's own half century coming as it did off just thirty-one balls with four sixes to go.

Rayudu's dismissal, the second wicket for Dale Steyn, only caused more mayhem for the RCB as Kieron Pollard played a blizzard of an innings, scoring thirty-three runs off just thirteen balls, six sixes adding nicely to the frame as the MI team finished strongly on 184.

On the other hand, the RCB were done in by the falling wickets, one they could not stem like the Mumbai Indians. The dangerous Jacques Kallis was caught by Rayudu off Lasith Malinga while Harbhajan Singh had Kevin Pietersen stumped. Robin Uthappa did get a start, making twenty-six runs, and it did not help that Rahul Dravid was lost to a run out. Pollard then hit back with the ball, dismissing Uthappa, the first of his three wickets for the night. Ross Taylor was stranded on thirty-one, the RCB ruled out of a win with the wickets falling so regularly even their most optimistic fan was having a tough time believing on the day.

Pollard, on the other hand, could do no wrong. His three wickets cost just seventeen runs as the RCB could only score 149 for nine, losing the match by thirty-five runs, a comprehensive win by any stretch of the imagination.

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